Beginning July 1, any Connecticut resident 21 and older has the right to have three mature, and three immature, cannabis plants growing in their home at any given time. As many households have two adults, 12 plants is the most allowed per home.
People who have never grown their own might want to do it, but don’t know how. It takes more than just a green thumb to bring a cannabis plant to its full potential. Experts in the field say it takes specialized equipment, knowledge of soils and nutrients, and an eye for what kind of plants are desirable and what are not.
It also takes patience. “The industry standard is four weeks or so for propagation and eight weeks for flowering,” said Ryan Vassar, owner of Mr. Nice Guy, a cannabis cultivation shop in Wolcott, which sells seeds and growing supplies.
Even more patience is required than that. “It takes about five years to become a master grower, to the point you’re thinking, I’m good at this, I understand what cultivation is all about,” Vassar said. “This industry is never about quick jumps.”
For those starting out, there is one most important rule the state is enforcing: All plants must be grown indoors, in a place where kids and pets can’t get to them.
“People may be confused about that part of the law. We can’t grow in our gardens. That’s a big misconception,” said Joseph Raymond of Hamden, of CT Canna Warriors activist group.
Vassar hopes that changes one day, and personal cannabis gardens are allowed outdoors. “There is no grow light on the planet that can do what the sun can do. The sun is the most valuable asset in any cultivation facility,” he said.
Maureen Mangan, spokeswoman for the state Department of Consumer Protection, said greenhouses don’t count as “indoors.”
“An accessory structure is typically not considered part of a primary residence,” Mangan said.
Another important consideration: If you rent your home, it’s a good idea to ask the landlord if they allow growing cannabis on the premises, “especially if a renter plans to add or modify the space that they are renting,” Mangan said.
Also, don’t plant your plants in dirt you dug up from outside your home. “That brings in weeds, it bring in bugs. You want it to be clean,” said Bryan Connolly, a botanist and horticulturalist at Eastern Connecticut State University and part of the university’s Cannabis Cultivation and Chemistry program.
Here are some tips for newbies. Connolly, Vassar and Raymond give advice about starting out.
What should newbies do first?
Connolly: Get a good book on growing. I use “The Cannabis Grow Bible” by Greg Green.
Raymond: Read anything by Ed Rosenthal. He’s been in the business for about 50 years.
Vassar: Don’t get any ideas off of YouTube. A lot of information out there is good but some is amateur hour, and there is so much it can be bewildering.
What are advantages of growing your own?
Connolly: One, you can probably do it more cost effectively. Dispensaries can be expensive. The other thing is control. You know exactly what you put into it.
Raymond: The big advantage is the freedom to access any strains you want. If it’s hard for people to find the strains they’d like through friends or through dispensaries, they can grow their own.
What do you need besides pots, soil and seeds?
Vassar: A grow tent. Buy one to fit the space you have available. It’s good to get one propagation tent and one bigger flowering tent. You need grow lights with a timer, a ventilation system, a hygrometer to manage temperature and humidity, a carbon filter so the whole house doesn’t smell like cannabis.
Why two growing spaces?
Connolly: You can control the vegetative stage, or immature phase, with lights. If you have longer lights, 16 hours, 18 hours, 24 hours, the plants will stay vegetative. You can grow your plant really large if you like. After the vegetative stage, you go to 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark.
What kind of soil is best?
Raymond: I would recommend using something like Fox Farm Ocean Forest. You can find it in most grow shops. It’s a very good beginner soil. It’s amended with lots of natural amendments, crab shell, bat guano, microorganisms.
What kind of seeds are best?
Connolly: You can try regular seeds, any strain. But many people prefer feminized seeds. Male plants have low cannabinoids, very little THC, very little CBD. You generally don’t want that. Regular seeds have an even number of males to females. Feminized seeds basically guarantee female plants.
Vassar: There are also autoflower seeds. They’re like a ticking time bomb. They grow a lot faster. Once you put it in dirt it will begin its journey right then.
Raymond: Some people like to use clones, a cutting from a plant. The problem with clones is any pathogens from the plant are copied onto the clones. Starting out, seed is better. The seed pod comes off of the plant. It is a phenotype of the plant but doesn’t carry pathogens. I would suggest if you use clones, know your source. Know who they are and how and where they are doing their cloning.
How can you tell male from female?
Connolly: Males have a round flower bud that hangs down. Females have a white stigma going upright. It’s a different look. The male is basically a useless plant. You put in two months growing, then it’s male and it still counts as one of your six plants.
What nutrients does cannabis need?
Connolly: There are special blends. You can buy those. Generally you’re going to want to start in the vegetative mode with more nitrogen. When you change your lights and go into flower, you want more phosphorous. Cannabis seems to like quite a bit of potassium as well.
What are common mistakes people make?
Connolly: I would say light. If you can’t grow outside legally, you need really good artificial lights. People think they can grow cannabis on a windowsill, but they might not have enough light. If you have a nice sun porch that faces south, you might be able to get away with it.
Vassar: How much water they use. Mid-flower, they need a lot more water than the tiny babies. Overwatering is an easy mistake to make. It’s better to underwater it, but you don’t want to turn them into dust.
Raymond: One of the biggest is not staying clean. Always be cleaning the plant and everything around it. You want to treat this as something you’re going to be consuming. Just like you keep vegetables and the area around them pretty clean.
What are the enemies of good growing?
Connolly: Growing inside, isolated from other plants, you have more control, but there are still pests and diseases. You want room temperature. Keep humidity pretty low and air circulating to keep fungus down. There is powdery mildew and bud rot if it is too moist. There are spider mites, aphids, white flies, russet mites, thrips. If that happens, I would suggest talking to someone like Mr. Nice Guy. But don’t bring the plant to the shop because it could spread disease. Take a picture.
Raymond: Disorganization. Know what you are growing. Have everything labeled. Have vegetating plants all separated from your flowering plants. Routine is everything. These plants need the maintenance every day.
For more details about growing, visit Connolly’s blog post at the website of Connecticut Gardener, conngardener.com/growing-cannabis-in-connecticut-part-ii.
The state’s informational page about cannabis is at ct.gov/cannabis.
